Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Take Public Transit

I just added a link to Metro Rider LA -- a new site, founded in part by a friend and co-worker -- on the right and I encourage anyone in LA who cares about doing something about traffic, congestion, pollution to check it out.

I may not ride the bus or rails a lot, but I do want to and this site can help me do that. And, remember as I've said before, if you can walk, don't drive. Most of Angelenos live in some neighborhood where you don't have to drive to the bank, the grocery store, the coffee joint.

Walking makes both you, your neighborhood and your city healthier.

And for God's sake, if you can take a bus or train, do it. Find out how much more reading you can get done and take a look at what your fellow citizens look like as seen not through tinted glass windows.

6 comments:

Actually, busses and trains cost almost as much per person mile traveled as autos do. Despite the auto's externalized costs, auto drivers pay a higher proportion of those costs than transit riders do.

Transit is no where near as efficient as promoters would have you believe, primarily because the load factor is so low. If cars average four seats and carry an average of 1.25 persons per trip, then their load factor at 31% is higher than the average train or bus which only runs at around 17% to 25% of capacity.

Because transit's true efficiency is so much lower than it's possible efficiency, it may not even pollute less, once all the contingent factors are taken into account.

If, however, more people actually do take public transit,then transits performance numbers could theoretically increase. In most cities that has never happened, primarily because the average travel time using transit is more than twice as high as driving.

The point is, though, the more people who do take public transit, the more efficient it will be. It has to start somewhere. Continued sanctioning of driving alone is going to lead this city to hopeless gridlock. Every bit helps -- whether it's taking a bus once a week or walking to your local stores to run your errands. You can either be part of the problem or part of the solution.

Hey Anonymous, this is Fred from MetroRiderLA. You are failing to remember that there are more costs involved in automoblie travel than the costs you pay up front as a driver. There's the cost of highway infrastructure and parking infrastructure (and is there anything more wasteful and ugly than a parking lot?)to handle those cars. Plus you say that tranist is slower than driving, maybe in some cities, but that argument is rapidly fading in Los Angeles. If you read the LACMTA's long term (25yr) plan, in a best case scenario (all their transit plans being approved at completed in 25 years) the average freeway speed in 25 years will be 15 mph. Yikes. If traveling to work daily in a 1 ton vehice moving at the average speed of a swift bicycle is your idea of effecient... then go ahead and ignore the obvious need for mass transit.

"contingent factors" lolz. get a life anonymous. and your 1.25 statistic... is that supposed to back your belief that driving is the answer? what absurdity. next thing you'll be saying is how one pathetic extra lane for carpools is the answer. the days of driving every damn place are over, time to wake up and start changing how LA thinks about how to get around. expanded/expanding public transit is the answer.tyke

Oh puleeezzz...If you were in any other city I might agree with taking public transit. Los Angeles is such a huge sprawling mess that public transportation in L.A. will be never be used by business commuters (or those darn rich people) but instead will just shovel poor people around. When was the last time you saw a businessman on a bus here? The only way to fix L.A.'s infrastructure is to take a big huge bulldozer to the whole damn place and start again.